CHAMBERSBURG — On its first two possessions of the game, Chambersburg had the ball deep in Cumberland Valley territory.
And the Trojans scored zero points.
Rashawn Williams
That came back to haunt them in a 23-14 Mid Penn Commonwealth defeat to the Eagles at Trojan Stadium on Friday night.
After being forced to punt on the first series, Chambersburg (2-7, 0-6 MPC) caught a break when the punt bounced off a CV player and Brady Deneen recovered at the Eagle 24. But three plays netted two yards and a 39-yard field goal attempt by Teegan Humelsine was off the mark.
Then, after Cumberland Valley (4-5, 3-3 MPC) went right down the field and scored to make it 7-0, a 46-yard pass from Riley Harmon to Rhaigeon Parker — who made a beautiful juggling catch with a defender draped on him — put the ball on the CV 10. But on third down, Harmon was picked off in the end zone by Griffin Huffman.
“We’ve been struggling on offense lately, and when we got no points there early — when you don’t take advantage of the good field position we had — that’s hard to win football games when you do that,” Trojan coach Mark Luther said.
Harmon was intercepted on the next possession by Alex Sauve and the Eagles took advantage, scoring on a 27-yard pass from Isaac Sines to Huffman, one play after CV was assessed a holding penalty. That made it 13-0. A 30-yard field goal by Sines boosted the lead to 16-0 in the third period.
Chambersburg did not threaten again until Jermere Jones entered at quarterback in the fourth quarter. Running back Rashawn Williams produced runs for 52 yards and Jones ran for 25 as the Trojans went 79 yards on nine plays, with Jones pushing in from the 1. A failed pass for two points left the score 16-6 with 9:04 left.
But any chance of a comeback were dashed when CV took the ball right down the field for another touchdown, using nine straight running plays and then capping it off with a 10-yard pass from Sines to Caiden Pines to go ahead 23-6 with 3:44 left.
Luther said, “It boils down to the same things — we can’t seem to make a play when we really need to. We missed a lot of key tackles on third down, and the offense just allowed too much penetration. They were able to blow up some running plays and kept pressure on our quarterbacks.”
The Trojans did finish the game with a lengthy drive of 14 plays to tack on a second TD, getting five first downs. Jones scrambled up the middle on fourth-and-17 for 23 yards, and scored from 9 yards out with 6 seconds left. A two-point pass to Isaiah Brumfield made it 23-14.
“We did keep fighting — that’s all we can do,” Luther said. “We need to be able to finish as strong as we can, because a lot of these kids are back next year.”
Chambersburg hosts Harrisburg next Friday in the season finale.
NOTES: The Trojans had a delay of game penalty before its first snap of the game, and had another on the first play of a possession, and had to call a time out several times before the play clock ran out … Williams had a good day, running for 85 yards on 18 carries, while Jones had 10 carries for 67 yards … On defense, Grant Hopple and Elijah Owens each had 11 tackles … Hopple and James Lilley each recorded a sack and Lilley had a tackle for a loss on a fourth-down play.
Cumberland Valley 23, Chambersburg 14
Cumb. Valley 7 6 3 7 — 23
Chambersburg 0 0 0 14 — 14
First Quarter
CV — Isaac Sines 8 run (Sines kick), 4:14
Second Quarter
CV — Griffin Huffman 27 pass from Sines (kick failed), 8:41
Third Quarter
CV — Sines 30 field goal, 4:46
Fourth Quarter
Ch — Jermere Jones 1 run (pass failed), 9:04
CV — Caiden Pines 10 pass from Sines (Sines kick), 3:44
Ch — Jones 9 run (Isaiah Brumfield pass from Jones), 0:06
TEAM STATISTICS
CV Chbg
First downs 17 13
Rushes-yards 42-185 37-171
Passing 5-10-0 8-16-3
Passing yards 104 90
Total offense 289 261
Fumbles-lost 1-1 0-0
Punts-average 1-15 2-32.5
Penalties-yards 4-40 8-45
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing — CV, Sines 21-80, Josh Wagenheim 10-45, J.D. Hunter 9-39, Bryce Staretz 2-21. Chbg, Rashawn Williams 18-85, Jones 10-67, Riley Harmon 7-15, Bryce Flenory 2-4.
Passing — CV, Sines 5-10-0-104. Chbg, Harmon 5-10-3-64, Jones 3-6-0-26.
Receiving — CV, Somerville 2-56, Huffman 1-27, Hunter 1-11, Pines 1-10. Chbg, Rhaigeon Parker 3-51, Andy Jean-Baptiste 3-17, Malachi Scott 1-14, Brumfield 1-8.
Missed FG — Chbg, 39 (short).
Interceptions — CV, Huffman, Alex Sauve, Max Wilken.